PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Steelers are undoubtedly the team of Ben Roethlisberger, says General Manager Kevin Colbert.

Colbert called Roethlisberger the "undisputed leader" of the locker room, who has the freedom to publicly criticize teammates if he sees fit.

"He's the older statesman and the Super Bowl winner," Colbert told a group of local reporters on Wednesday. "If our players were smart, they would listen to him because he was there, he did, he can tell them," No, boys, what you do is or is not good enough to do that do & # 39;. "

Controversial recipient Antonio Brown has tweeted he had a "big meeting" with Steelers President Art Rooney II on Tuesday, but both sides had "agreed it was time to move on".

Steelers' All Pro Wide receiver, Antonio Brown, asked fans questions on Twitter on Saturday. He responded to his recent trade request and his relationship with the neighborhood Ben Roethlisberger.

2 Related

After a week's week 12 against Denver, Roethlisberger said in his weekly radio show that Antonio Brown – now in the trade – should have a flatter route at the goal line. He added that he wished he had accused JuJu Smith-Schuster instead.

Privately, Brown made an exception to that. And publicly, Brown tweeted on Saturday that Roethlisberger had a "owner mentality" because of his willingness to call players and coaches.

Roethlisberger says that his role as team captain and 15-year veteran gives him credibility in criticizing that he does not abuse this privilege and criticizes himself.

Colbert points out that Roethlisberger is the only Steeler in the Super Bowl XLIII team.

"I honestly believe that this can be a burden to him more often than he wants to admit because he's … he's got 52 children in his sincere," said Colbert.

"I want you to get up and say," Hey Ben, what do I have to do? Can I do that better? What do we have to do to win a Super Bowl? "I think when you win, you have 53 people who can say what's needed, right now he's the only one so I have no problem with him, he can call me and that's good, what he does 'I have great respect, because I see that he wins too many games for us and gets through in situations.'

The Steelers are working on a contract extension for Roethlisberger, whose deal expires after the 2019 season and led the NFL 2018 with 529 passing yards. He also announced a career with high 34 touchdowns.

Colbert cited Roethlisberger's fiery midterm speech when he came from behind in Jacksonville last season, citing this as an example of Roethlisberger's leadership.